Donald Runnicles to be honored May 29 in Verdi Requiem before stepping down as maestro of SFO

March 24, 6:03 PMSF Opera ExaminerCindy Warner

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Maestro Donnald Runnicles to be honored May 29 in Verdi Requiem

SFO calls conductor Donald Runnicles to the pit for an exuberant roaring twenties performance this July before he steps down as maestro and departs for Berlin and the BBC Scottish Symphony.  He will wield his baton this summer over not one but three Violettas in La Traviata before leaving. 

Here's an interview with Donald Runnicles.

According to the SFO press release of this afternoon . . .

Director Marta Domingo’s lively production of Verdi’s La Traviata sets the timeless story of a conflicted courtesan, her devoted lover and his disapproving father in the appropriately exuberant Roaring Twenties. Donald Runnicles conducts the emotionally evocative and eternally popular score in his final performances as the Company’s music director. International superstar Anna Netrebko is the glamorous yet tortured Violetta, a role she shares with Elizabeth Futral and Ailyn Pérez.

Runnicles will return next summer however to conduct Wagner’s Die Walkure and then in 2011 for the entire Ring Cycle. Mark Delavan sings Wotan in Die Walkure but I wonder who will be in the entire Ring Cycle?

THE VERDI REQUIEM HONORING MAESTRO DONALD RUNNICLES
(May 29)

As Maestro Donald Runnicles concludes his illustrious 17-year tenure as San Francisco Opera’s music director and principal conductor, he leads a special concert of Verdi’s Requiem on May 29 at 8 p.m. at the War Memorial Opera House. The celebrated roster of soloists includes soprano Patricia Racette, who returns in the 2009–10 Season to star in Puccini’s Il Trittico and Gounod’s Faust,

as well as bass Andrea Silvestrelli, last seen as Fasolt in Wagner’s Das Rheingold.

Also featured, in their highly anticipated San Francisco Opera debuts, are mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe and tenor Stefano Secco [each pictured below], both also returning in the 2009–10 Season. This salute to Donald Runnicles marks a rare occasion when the San Francisco Opera Chorus and Orchestra will be showcased on the stage of the War Memorial Opera House under the baton of their renowned maestro.

Donald Runnicles’ nearly two decades of musical leadership have left an indelible mark on the Company and the Bay Area musical community. Music Director of San Francisco Opera since 1992, he first led San Francisco Opera in two Wagner Ring cycles in 1990 and has since conducted more than 60 productions here, including the world premieres of Adams’s Doctor Atomic and Susa’s The Dangerous Liaisons; the North American premiere of Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise; and the West Coast premiere of Wallace’s Harvey Milk. Although Maestro Runnicles goes on to his newly appointed posts as general music director of Deutsche Oper Berlin and chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony in the fall of 2009, he will continue to be a part of San Francisco Opera’s musical life in the future, which includes leading Die Walküre in June 2010 and the complete Ring cycle in 2011.

Stephanie Blythe and Stefano Secco . . .

As for the Violetta trio . . . Here is the Russian Netrebko performing La Traviata with Domingo and Villazon in Brindisi.   

Elizabeth Futral, American coloratura and a Southern Belle . . .  La Traviata finale of Act I . . .  

American Ailyn Perez, SFO alum with Andrea Bocelli in Il Trovatore . . .  

For more info: www.SFOpera.com

Photos courtesy of SFO

Photo Andrea Silvestrelli from http://www.andreasilvestrelli.com

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Contact the writer at SFOperaExaminer@Yahoo.com